100 Most Read Books in Kenya 2016

‘It is the story of a freedom fighter and a cultural activist; the story of an astute businessman and a shrewd politician; the story of generous family man and a philanthropist; the story of an eminent elder and a gifted storyteller. It is the story of Njenga Karume.’

As a young student, internationally renowned author Ngugi wa Thiong’o found his voice as a playwright, journalist and novelist, writing his first, pivotal works just as the countries of East Africa were in the final throes of their independence struggles.

For Ngugi, an ambitious student leaving Kenya for the first time, the prestigious Makerere University embodies all the potential and excitement of the early 1960s. Campus is a haven of opportunity for the brightest African students, a meeting place for great thinkers and writers from all over the world, and its alumni, including Milton Obote and Julius Nyerere, are filling Africa’s emerging political and cultural positions. Despite the challenges he faces as a young black man in a British colony, it is here that Ngugi begins to write, weaving stories from the fibres of memory, history and a shockingly turbulent present.

Fan Into Flame is a multi-layered narrative with the nuances of a thriller as the author unveils dramatic events that took place when he was a soldier in Ethiopia and the serenity that he encounters after his ‘rebirth’’. The story spans through the history of colonial and independent Kenya.

Kaggia vividly describes the bitterness of racial discrimination in colonial Kenya during his youth and how he joined the British army in 1941 principally to seize the opportunity to travel to Jerusalem and even to England. During the war he was highly respected by both white and black, but when the World War II was over, he was no longer of use to the colonial government and merely became yet another African subject to be transported back to Kenya with his fellow Kenyans as if they were cattle.

Bart Joseph Kibati, who started dreaming as a schoolboy of becoming a James Bond- type intelligence agent and rose to become a deputy director of intelligence with the notorious Special Branch, the predecessor of the National Intelligence Service, tells all in this first-ever memoir by a top-level Kenyan spymaster.

Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka became Kenya’s youngest Member of Parliament when he was first elected in 1985 at the age of 31. He went on to serve in public office for 28 uninterrupted years until March,2013 when his coalition lost the elections. During this long period, he served Kenyans in many capacities including as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice President. Against All Odds, the story of his life- from the time of his birth in semi-arid and poverty stricken Mwingi district in Eastern Kenya, where bandits roamed villages killing and maiming almost at will, to rise to the top of national politics- is an account of survival, resilience, betrayal, courage and hope.

Binyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his middle-class Kenyan childhood out of kilter with the world around him.This world came to him as a chaos of loud and colourful sounds: the hair dryers at his mother’s beauty parlour, black mamba bicycle bells, mechanics in Nairobi, the music of Michael Jackson – all punctuated by the infectious laughter of his brother and sister. He could fall in with their patterns, but it would take him a while to carve out his own. In this vivid and compelling debut, Wainaina takes us through his school days, his failed attempt to study in South Africa, a moving family reunion in Uganda, and his travels around Kenya.The landscape in front of him always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, and nationhood. Throughout, reading is his refuge and his solace. And when, in 2002, a writing prize comes through, the door is opened for him to pursue the career that perhaps had been beckoning all along. Resolutely avoiding stereotype and cliche, Wainaina paints every scene in One Day I Will Write About This Place with a highly distinctive and hugely memorable brush.

To many, Philip Ochieng is that proud atheist and relentless social critic with unmatched grasp of the English language in the region. To others, though, he is undoubtedly a media giant of great repute. Having served in various capacities in the media industry. Ochieng’has earned both praise and condemnation from not just his readers but also his employers, colleagues and the powers that be.

As a missionary kid in Africa, he was told he’d never amount to much. Scott Gration went on to become a decorated USAF fighter pilot and White House Fellow, survive terrorist attacks of Khobar Towers and the Pentagon, and fly 274 combat sorties over Iraq.

With an Introduction by Bronislav Malinkowski, Facing Mount Kenya is a central document of the highest distinction in anthropological literature, an invaluable key to the structure of African society and the nature of the African mind. Facing Mount Kenya is not only a formal study of life and death, work and play, sex and the family in one of the greatest tribes of contemporary Africa, but a work of considerable literary merit. The very sight and sound of Kikuyu tribal life presented here are at once comprehensive and intimate, and as precise as they are compassionate.

Pheroze Nowrojee’s family came to Kenya in 1896 to work on the railway. A Kenyan Journey examines how that voyage from India became a Kenyan journey, how the railway became the family’s own journey as Kenyans.

‘The legacy of notable leadership in Africa, be it in politics, government, academia, business or the corporate sector cannot be said to be adequately chronicled and published. Yet, the moment the story of man or woman of great achievement, and whose contribution has changed the destiny of others is published- particularly when the one in focus has been presented as a person of flesh and blood- the inspiration that could result can eventually transform people, generations or even entire nations.’

‘Wangari Mathai is a prophet for our time and Unbowed is a call to arms for all of us who feel that the planet is overwhelmed by careless, corrupt and violent leadership. I have long suspected that the voice to lead us forward would come out of Africa, and it has- a voice of humour, sense, strength and compassion. Read this book and pass it on.’- Alexandra Fuller

One of the comedy world’s brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. As host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him.

He became a myth in his own lifetime and an international matyr-figure upon his death; he was a revolutionary fighter, a military strategist, a social philosopher, an economist, a medical doctor, and a friend and confidant of Fidel Castro. Che Guevara’s dream was an epic one- to unite Latin America and the rest of the developing world through armed revolution, and to end once and for allthe poverty, injustice and petty nationalisms that had bled it for centuries. In the end Che failed in his quest, but he is recognized as that one-in-a-million personality who just might have pulled it off.

Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years – as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues – this is the acclaimed, internationally bestselling biography of the ultimate icon of inventiveness. Walter Isaacson tells the story of the rollercoaster life and searingly intense personality of creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies,music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

Today The Prince is still seen as the Bible of realpolitik, read by strategists, businessmen and political animals everywhere as the ultimate guide to gaining and maintaining power in aa dangerous world.

The concept of the Black Swan, the unexpected, is explained as an integral part of the world today. Nassim argues how uncertainty should be taken into account and with as much seriousness as with what is already known.

The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham’s philosophy of “value investing”- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies-has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949.

In Thrive, Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington post and one of the most influential women in the world, has written a passionate call to arms, looking to redefine what it means to be successful in today’s world.

Forget formulating a ‘vision’, then leaving others to carry it out: Execution shows you how to link together people, strategy and operations- the three core elements of every organisation- and create a business based on dialogue, intellectual honesty and realism.

Drawing on the wisdom of an astonishing array of talented people- from elite athletes to top managers, from rulers of countries to rulers of global business empires- Alastair Campbell uses his forensic skills, as well as his own experience of politics and sport, to get to the heart of success.

“The main reason people struggle financially is because they have spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is the people learn to work for money…but never learn to have money work for them.”- Robert Kiyosaki

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

Confessions of an Economic Hitman is the story of one man’s experiences inside the intrigue, greed, corruption and little-known government and corporate activities that the U.S have been involved in since World War II. The message is clear, unless these clandestine activities are stopped, they will have dire consequences for our future.

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, “Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns

The Prophet Muhammad is a hero for all mankind. In his lifetime he established a new religion, Islam; a new state, the first united Arabia; and a new literary language, the classical Arabic of the Qúran, believed to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel. A generation after his death he would be acknowledged as the founder of a world empire and a new civilisation.

The idea of a single divine being-God, Yahweh, Allah- has existed for over 4,000 years. But the history of God is also the history of human struggle. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim the goodness of God, organised religion has too often been the catalyst for violence and ineradicable prejudice.

We all want help. Over the past fifty years $1 trillion of development aid has flowed from Western governments to Africa. But this has not helped Africa. It has ruined it. Dambisa Moyo’s excoriating and controversial book reveals why, and shows us another way.

Johnson’s deep knowledge of the country and its history, her longstanding relations with its leaders, and her frequent personal and private contacts at the highest levels of government, make this a unique eyewitness account of the turbulent first three years of the world’s newest- and yet most fragile- country.

Few books have been as influential in understanding African impoverishment as this groundbreaking analysis. Rodney shows the exploitation of the continent committed by the imperial countries of Europe, and subsequently the US, as aided by agents or unwitting accomplices in the North and in Africa.

Every day a new blaze seems to ignite: the bloody implosions of Iraq and Syria; the East-West standoff in Ukraine; abducted school girls in northern Nigeria. Is there some thread tying these frightening international security crises together? In a riveting account that weaves history with fast-moving reportage and insider accounts from the Afghanistan war,Sarah Chayes identifies the unexpected link: corruption.

Opening with the enigmatic question ‘Who is John Galt?’,Atlas Shrugged envisions a world where ‘men of talent’”- the great innovators, producers and creators-have mysteriously disappeared. With the U.S economy now faltering, business woman Dagny Taggart is struggling to get the transcontinental railroad uo and running. For her, John Galt is rge enemy but, as she will learn, nothing in this situation is quite as it seems.

In the secret world of spies and covert operations, no other intelligence service continues to be surrounded by myth and mystery, or commands respect and fear, like Israel’s Mossad. Formed in 1951 to ensure an embattled Israel’s future, the Mossad has been responsible for the most audacious and thrilling feats of espionage, counterterrorism, and assassination ever ventured.

On 3 July 1976 Israeli Special Forces carried out a daring raid to free more than a hundred Israeli, French and US hostages held by German and Palestinian terrorists at Entebbe Airport, Uganda. The legacy of this mission is still felt today in the way Western governments respond to terrorist blackmail.

From the best-selling author of A Vast Conspiracy and The Run of His Life comes Too Close to Call–the definitive story of the Bush-Gore presidential recount. A political and legal analyst of unparalleled journalistic skill, Jeffrey Toobin is the ideal writer to distil the events of the thirty-six anxiety-filled days that culminated in one of the most stunning Supreme Court decisions in history.

Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama’s prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the of the Cold War.

In 1993 the esteemed journal FOREIGN AFFAIRS published an article entitled “The Clash of Civilizations?” by Samuel P. Huntington. According to the journal’s editors it went on to generate more discussion than anything they had published since the Second World War. In the article, Huntington posed the question whether conflicts between civilizations would dominate the future of world politics. In the book, he gives the answer, showing not only how clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace but also how an international order based on civilizations is the best safeguard against war. Since September 11, his thesis has seemed even more prescient and acute. THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER is now recognised as a classic study of international relations in an increasingly uncertain world.

Serving in Rwanda in 1993 as a UN Force Commander, Lieutenant General Romèo Dallaire and his small UN peacekeeping force found themselves abandoned by the world’s major powers in a vortex of civil war and genocide.

In a world experiencing increasing conflicts, terrorism and displacement, many people are wondering what the United Nations- the organization established in 1945 to save future generations from the scourge of war- should or could have done to prevent these disasters from escalating.

As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?

He is born into a world of poverty and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel its passions, know its ugliness and love its beauty. This is his inspiring story.

Told through the maturing eyes and diary entries of a young boy, Born on a Tuesday is the story of Dantala, a naïve but bright Quranic student who falls in with a gang of street boys, surviving on a regime of petty crime, violence and weed. After setting fire to the local headquarters of the opposition party, Dantala is on the run, with images of his slain gang leader in his head. Still reeling from the trauma of events, he stumbles into a Salafi mosque in another town.

Furo Wariboko- born and bred in Lagos-wakes up on the morning of his job interview to discover he has turned into a white man. As he hits the city streets running, still reeling from his new-found condition, Furo is amazed to find the dead ends of his life open out before him.

When a young man is gunned down in the streets of Nairobi, his grief-stricken father and sister bring his body back to their crumbling home in the Kenyan drylands. But the murder has stirred up memories long since buried, precipitating a series of events no one could have foreseen.

Meet the man of the house: Plump and prosperous, he has seven children, but his desire for more just might be his undoing.

And his wives: The first will stop at nothing to rule the house. The second is shy and timid- her life is shadowed by fear. The third is a schemer with crimson lips and expensive tastes. And the fourth doesn’t know it, but she has the power to unmask them all.

Genevieve asks me what I’ve been learning at school, what I like doing best, and what I want to do when I’m older, when I’m twenty. And I rattle on and on, I’m chattier than a whole family of sparrows,that’s all I do,just talk. I tell Genevieve I want to be a movie actor so I can kiss the actresses in Indian movies. I want to be the president of the Republic so I can make long speeches at the Revolution stadium, and write a book all about how bravely I faced the enemies of the Nation, I want to be a taxi driver so I don’t have to walk on the hot tarmac at midday. I tell her this, and she smiles and says life is too short to do all those things. You have to choose just a few, and above all, do them well.

In an unnamed African city in secession, profit-seekers of all languagesand nationalities mix. They have only one desire: to make a fortune by exploiting the mineral wealth of the land. Two friends: Lucien, a writer with literary ambitions home from abroad, and his childhood friend Requiem, who dreams of taking over the seedy underworld of their hometown, gather in the most notorious nightclub in town: the Tram 83.

Vimbai is the star hairdresser of her salon, the smartest in Harare, Zimbabwe, until the enigmatic Dumisani appears. Losing many of her best customers to this good-looking, smooth-talking young man, Vimbai fears for her job, vital if she’s to provide for her young child. But in a remarkable reversal the two becomes allies, Dumi renting a room from Vimbai, then inviting her to a family wedding, where to her surprise, he introduces her to his rich parents as his ‘girlfriend’. Soon they are running their own Harare salon, attracting the wealthiest and most powerful clients in the city. But disaster is near, as Vimbai soon uncovers Dumi’s secret, a discovery that will result in brutality and tragedy, testing their relationship to the very limit.

Bone, Bomu, Bafu, Ngeta and Rock find themselves in Ngando slums having fled the ethic-based violence in Molo. With little to do, they engage in all maner of trade to eke out a living. The entry of Nancy – stylish sophisticated and shrewd – catapults them into a nightmare that leads to destitution, betrayal, desperation, revenge, friendship and lasting love

A man accused of sexual harassment tells the bizzare tale of the Lifebloom gift, which is accessed through the moles on people’s skin… In the late 21st century a mathematical formula has been discovered that allows a few gifted people to relieve others of their grief- but at what cost?… A sone charts the disintegration of his mother and his family, Nigerian immigrants to Utah… The rivalries and rifts between two cousins raised as twins are recalled as one lies dead before the other… A girl acts as protector when her sister’s mental-health problems cause consternation in a South African village…

Pipes and kettledrums herald the arrival of gypsies on their annual visit to Macondo, the newly founded village where Jose Arcadio Buendia and his strong ‘willed wife, Ursula, have started their new life. As the mysterious Melquiades excites Aureliano Buendia and his father with new inventions and tales of adventure, neither can know the significance of the indecipherable manuscript that the old gypsy passes into their hands.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship, it is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

1939.Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.

Liesel, a nine-year old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

Despite the tumor-shrinking miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

“This is a long story that will take some time to unfold. It involves a ton of money, corruption that is astonishing, and some really nasty guys who wouldn’t think twice about putting a bullet or two between my eyes, yours, my client’s anyone who asks too many questions.”

As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestowes on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must… and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.

Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and an absent father, miraculously survives a catastrophe that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Theo is tormented by longing for his mother and down the years he clings to the thing that reminds him of her: a small, captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld.

Sebastian Rudd takes the cases no one else wants to take: the drug-addled punk accused of murdering two little girls; a crime lord on death row; a homeowner accused of shooting at a SWAT team.

Rudd believes that every person accused of a crime is entitled to a fair trial – even if he has to cheat to get one. He antagonises people from both sides of the law: his last office was firebombed, either by drug dealers or cops. He doesn’t know or care which.

Junot Diaz’s new collection, This Is How You Lose Her, is a collection of linked narratives about love – passionate love, illicit love, dying love, maternal love – told through the lives of New Jersey Dominicans, as they struggle to find a point where their two worlds meet. In prose that is endlessly energetic and inventive, tender and funny, it lays bare the infinite longing and inevitable weaknesses of the human heart. Most of all, these stories remind us that the habit of passion always triumphs over experience and that ‘love, when it hits us for real, has a half-life of forever.

Pip’s life as an ordinary country boy is destined to be unexceptional until a chain of events leads him from his humble origins and up the social ladder. His efforts to become a London gentleman bring him into contact not just with the upper classes but also with dangerous criminals. Pip’s desire to improve himself is matched by his longing for the icy-hearted Estella, but secrets from the past impede his progress and he has many hard lessons to learn.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling and satiric fables ever penned- a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.

Paulho Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different- and far more satisfying- than he ever imagined.

Who Moved My Cheese? Is a simple parable that reveals profound truths. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese to nourish them and make them happy.

Jack Canfield has taken all the most successful techniques for self-improvement and combined them with the unique insights he gained while building an $80 million business from nothing. He has distilled this knowledge into the concentrated genius of The Success Principles.

Robin Sharma, leadership guru, renowned professional speaker and author of the phenomenal international bestseller The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, has distilled timeless wisdom for visionary leadership into 8 practical lessons.

It has been passed down through the ages, highly coveted, hidden, lost, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. This centuries-old Secret has been understood by some of the most prominent people in history: Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison,Carnegie, Einsten- along with other inventors, theologians, scientists, and great thinkers. Now The Secret is being revealed to the world.

Is IQ destiny? Not nearly as much as we think. Daniel Goleman’s fascinating and persuasive book argues that our view of intelligence is too narrow, ignoring crucial range of abilities that matter immensely for how we do in life.

In the #1 New York Times bestseller Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day, Joel Osteen, pastor of America’s largest church, will inspire and motivate you to live with more joy, hope, and peace.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is recognized as one of the most influential books ever written. In this seminal work, Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, intergrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems.

We pride ourselves in having an unrivaled range of books that are rare to find in Nairobi or in the region. We are your go-to bookstore whether you are looking for an interesting novel, or a provocative local memoir.